I learned this Laos recipe from the book "Hot Sour Salty Sweet" by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid, which you can find on the book list just on the right hand side of this website. The original recipe calls for duck and uses black peppercorns for flavouring. I modified it slightly, by changing duck to chicken, and black peppercorns to lemon grass. The result - chicken rice that is rich in flavour and easy to make. However, it uses quite a lot of oil/fat so this ain't no diet food.
Serves 2-4 as a main meal
- 2 cups jasmine rice
- 3-4 chicken thighs, cut into about 9-12 pieces, with bone
- 8 cloves garlic, peeled
- 1 lemongrass, trimmed
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon curry powder
- 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
- 1 tablespoons Thai fish sauce
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil or duck fat/chicken fat/goose fat
- 3 spring onions, trimmed and cut lengthwise into fine strips
1. Wash and soak the rice. Set aside. Use a food processor to blend garlic, lemongrass, curry powder, tumeric, fish sauce and salt into a paste.
2. Heat a large wide heavy-bottomed pot over medium-high heat. Add 1.5 tablespoons of the oil or fat and toss in the prepared paste. Cook for about 30 seconds, keep stirring to prevent sticking or burning. Add the chicken and stir to coat all the pieces with the flavoured oil and the paste. Stir frequently and cook until the pieces are lightly browned, about 5-7 minutes.
3. Add 1 cup of water, bring to boil and simmer gently for 5 minutes. Add another 3 cups water to the pot and bring to boil again. Drain the soaked rice. Add the remaining oil/fat to the pot, then sprinkle in the rice. The liquid should cover the rice by a bit more than 1 cm. Bring back to boil, cover the pot tightly, and lower the heat to medium-low, and cook until the rice is tender, about 15 minutes. Remove from the heat and let stand for 5 minutes before serving.
4. Garnish with spring onion and serve hot or at room temperature.
